The Life of a Detective

If you don't get your questions answered here, I'll see if I still have contact information for an actual detective in LA. We became "forum friends" because he was considering early retirement and thinking of moving to Tennessee.

By the way, most people are glad to talk about their job to a writer (even an unpublished one) as long as you're not asking about their personal life or ongoing situations.

You could probably contact the LAPD (public affairs) and be put in touch with a LA detective willing to answer general questions.

I'm not a detective, but I can help on some of these.

Jeanette said:

1. Do female detective wear their wedding/engagement rings while on duty?

Yes, normally. I suppose there may be some personal preference however.

4. Do all detectives have take-home slick-backs or do you drive to work in your own car and switch over? Important since Los Angeles is car/freeway culture.

Drive your own car under normal circumstances. The police department is not rich enough to provide free cars.

5. Are Kevlar vests one-size-fits-all? Would lady detectives have bosom problems with them?

Kevlar vests come in different sizes and have velcro straps for greater adjustability. Modern ones flex enough that she'd be fine unless she was once a porn star or something. Non-tactical vests are quite light and comfortable, but will only stop pistol calibre bullets.

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You also might want to drop in on the library. There was a very good book about women police officers. Commentary on things like how the John Browne belts don't fit right. There is also a book on the first woman who was in the FBI. Not LAPD, but might have some similiarities or give you ideas.

One thing about the kevlar vest is that they are deceptively heavy. My experience was the mlitary version a number of years ago, so they may have made improvements in the weight. It's spread all evenly over your body so you don't notice the weight -- at least until something bad happens. I almost fell fifteen feet because of the extra weight. I had spent two days climbing up and down this ladder, and on the last climb down, my legs gave out only a couple rungs down.

Getting near water would be scary, too. If you fall in -- well, that's not hard to imagine. Though in L.A., you're not exactly likely to find a river. Swimming pool, yeah. BTW, you might ask about clothing arrangements. That was a challenge in our military ones when we needed to use the latrine -- ours were one size fits all: Men. They were made for someone with a different body type. That's likely to be a complaint of the women for much of the equipment (if you find the book on women police officers, you'll see that mentioned). If you're short waisted, for example, an equipment belt is going to be tough to wear. In the army, we had to wear this gas mask on our hip. The proper way to wear it was fastened around your waist. Since I'm short waisted, it was like wearing a pillow that bumped me in the wrong places, especially when I tried to sit. I ended up wearing it like a cross-straped purse that I could move around.

Hopefully, the police are doing better for the women. The army's only just started to make uniforms to accomodate women.

Not on women, but worth noting, since the police are also like the military in this respect: Guns are tools, so it's likely to have dings and dents in it. Not like a collector who would have a nice, shiny, perfect gun for display.

5. Are Kevlar vests one-size-fits-all? Would lady detectives have bosom problems with them?

Generally female officers vests are made to measure for comfort.